A dress, nearly every day.

Month: April 2012

A few weeks back I took a look at the laundry pile and thought “I need to make another 1577.” So here it is:

Here’s a better look at the bodice, which is Liberty city poplin ordered in a weak moment from Shaukat:

And here are the pockets:

As usual this dress is super-comfortable, with huge pockets (I can fit a whole Moleskine notebook in one). This particular Liberty print, as well, is super-powered — I’m traveling in it today because it is SO BUSY that it’s nearly impossible to stain. Seriously, I bet I could take a full ketchup dousing and come off fine. It’s that good.

Speaking of Liberty, I just noticed that Shaukat has a new category — “Seymour Stretch Poplin“. Has anyone sewn with this yet? Supposedly it has 2% elastane, which is a good thing, but they also say it’s lightweight, like Tana lawn … it’s so pretty, though!

I like this pattern (McCalls 6402) because I think that views A/B are ripe for pocketization. C too, but that’s not so much of a challenge. (D/E: please to ignore.)

Doesn’t it seem as if you could hang a couple of pocket bags off that curvy main piece and boom, pockets? I still have to actually BUY the pattern and check it out, but it seems so plausible. (Of course, all my worst ideas seemed perfectly plausible at the outset …)

My other idea for skirt B here is bright pink satin with a yellow lace overlay on the main pieces. Not so plausible, but a hell of a lot of fun, right? Also, the lace overlay will hide the creases-from-when-you-sat-down marks on the satin! Not sure either 1) what I’d wear with it (black t-shirt and Jack Purcells?) or 2) where I’d wear it (Bollywood-themed party? Nightclub Easter-egg hunt? A locked ward?), but man oh man that hasn’t stopped me thinking about it since I saw this pattern in the last issue of Threads.

So, weigh in if you can as to where you see this on the pocket difficulty rating scale (with “1” being “They make themselves and fill up with candy when you’re not looking” and “10” being “Can only be achieved by dousing the fabric liberally with antimatter”) and also on the potential wearing opportunities for a bright pink and yellow satin and lace skirt (given that I am a 40-year-old mom and most of my social events involve stick-on nametags). All letters answered by return of post.

I have a new favorite dress pattern. Made up, it looks like this (excuse the fuzzy picture):

Which isn’t really anything like the pattern illustration, is it?

I did add pockets, ganking them from Simplicity 1577, which is essentially the same dress:

I also changed the pattern to have a side (rather than a center-back) zipper, and I shortened the sleeves. But other than that (Mrs Lincoln …) it’s that pattern. (The fabric is another piece from that trip to Japan — better picture at that link.)

The more eagle-eyed among you will notice that this pattern is a half-size pattern, and so that Simplicity 1577 is, too. Half-sizes are my new favorite, favorite, favorite thing, because, wonders of wonders — I don’t have to alter these half-size patterns. Not one bit, not one jot. It turns out that (unsurprisingly, since I AM a middle-aged woman) that patterns sized for middle-aged women who themselves have a bit of a middle fit me very, very nicely. They’re a bit matronly (duh) and harder to find, but man oh man, the pleasure of just CUTTING SOMETHING OUT WITHOUT MEASURING AND REDRAWING is a truly pleasurable pleasure, indeed.

It’s almost enough to make me try to lose three inches from around my waist so as to fit in to non-half-size (saying “full size” doesn’t really work here, does it?) patterns in the same bust size. It’s that awesome.

How awesome is it? Well, I’ve made two more of these dresses *and* have another one cut out and just waiting to be finished. Another reason this dress is a new favorite: it’s SO FAST to make! It’s also extremely comfortable and easy to wear — just throw on a cardigan and a belt and you’re done. (And it looks good with loafers.)

During my blog-hiatus I did not stop sewing, oh no. I actually tore through quite a few patterns (literally and figuratively, ulp):

This is Butterick 6820, and I’ve made at least the bodice of it once before, but was always scared off from making the skirt by the fullness and the patch pockets. But … it’s always best to tackle things you’re scared of head-on (right?) so I took a deep breath and went for it. Here are those tricky pockets (which turned out to be not so bad):

And I didn’t have a red invisible zipper, or a mustard one, so I went old-school and used a metal zipper. This will probably confound anyone who tries to date this dress at some later point. Sorry, clothing historians!

That is most definitely not the best zipper I’ve ever put in … I will probably take it out and replace it at some point. It’s also scratchy (as metal zippers are wont to be).

Here’s the rear view:

This is a fun dress to make and wear, but I’m not sure it will see a lot of use, either as a pattern or in this incarnation … those winged sleeves just don’t work well under a cardigan. Maybe I’ll pull this pattern out again next time I find some bird fabric I love …

Hilda read and re-read the professor’s lab notes, but there was nothing in the experimental protocol that would have predicted the wildly differing sizes — or aggressive temperaments! — of the cloned teens.

Sorry for the long delay in posting … there was this thing, and then this other thing, and then I had to switch to WordPress (which is a thing in and of itself), and then I did a bunch of sewing (watch this space for pictures, coming soon) and well, you know how it is.

The sidebar over there (–>) is still under construction; let me know if there are any links you’re missing. Ditto broken image links … I’ll be re-linking all the pictures to Flickr sometime soon-like.

While I’m getting organized to take more pictures of dresses, here’s a sullen picture of me (taking pictures of myself makes me sullen) in a new version of this dress:

The fabric is some Liberty bought yonks ago in the UK. The dress actually makes up really nicely in Liberty, something about the tucks. Putting in a three-inch hem helps it hang well, too.